Antioch Baptist Church

The Smith County Baptist Association minutes list Antioch from 1851, but the church's own 1984 history says it is believed to have been founded in 1832. Its early records burned, and the first pastor and charter members are unknown. In 1857, that history says, the Frost Thorn estate deeded land, and trustees William Buckett and Tarlton Bond rode to Nacogdoches to have the deed recorded. Lewis Todd and Billy Jarman built the first church house. In the 1910s and 1920s its Baptist Young People's Union was counted among the outstanding unions in East Texas.

What the plaque says

Antioch Baptist Church Records of the Smith County Baptist Association indicate that this congregation was established in 1851. Members held worship services in homes and in the local schoolhouse until they built their first sanctuary in 1857. Since the church had only part-time pastors, Sunday School classes and the Baptist Young People's Union met on Sundays even when a preacher could not be there. By 1936, Antioch had a half-time pastor. A new church building, completed in 1939, was enhanced by an education annex in 1953. Serving the rural Sand Flat community, Antioch Baptist Church continues to uphold the ideals and traditions of its founders. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tyler State Park — 0.4 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 6.4 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 9.2 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 10 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.

More markers nearby

• Nicholas Wren — 4.1 mi
• In the vicinity of Harris' place — 4.1 mi
• Pine Springs Baptist Church — 5.4 mi
• Milburn-Gary House — 6.2 mi